January 1, 2024
Relatives who come from different sides of this Planet Earth. Compañeros, compañeras.
You are seeing, there it is, the chairs of the absent men and women. Not present are the mothers and fathers who seek.
Not present are the disappeared. Not present are the political prisoners. Not present are the assassinated. Not present are the murdered youth. Not present are the murdered children. Also not present are our great-great-great grandparents who struggled more than 500 years ago.
But also not present are our fallen. Not present are the murdered. Who have fulfilled their duty.
Men, support bases, compañeros, compañeros, excuse me, support bases. Here we are here today, not to remember the fall of these compañeros from 40 years ago, from 30 years ago. Here we are here, compañeros, Zapatistas, so that we keep our duty in mind. Because it was a duty to those compañeros and those compañeras. That’s how it is.
And that is something we, the Zapatistas, have not fulfilled. We cannot say that we have already done much. Until we arrive as well, like the compañeres we’re talking about, from 30 years ago and 40 years ago. We are not saying here what they were like. No. How they were in their duty. We are not looking to make a museum so that they remember us.
Compañeros, compañeras Zapatistas. We do not need for them to come and give an explanation or class or political workshop about how the system works. It’s plain and simple to see the capitalist system. Whoever doesn’t want to see, that will be their responsibility.
Many many years ago, some say decades, others say centuries. So then, why do we need to take a class about it? We simply need to see what it is that we need to do. The good. To think the good, that’s what’s before us compañeros, compañeras
What we’re saying, that we are going to do in common, maybe there are brothers and sisters who think something else.
No. There are things that are common and there are things that are not common. That’s why we have a head to think, and that’s why we have eyes to realize it. And for that we have a sense of smell to be able to sense what is common and what is not common.
What happens is that with the theater production the youth compañeros and compañeras presented, it is very clear. Whoever doesn’t want to understand, that’s on them.
There are two things here.
Property must be of the people and in common.
And the people must self-govern, we don’t need those over there. They think they know everything. They decide for the teachers, decide for the doctors, decide for all the sectors of workers.
Like they say, they are know-it-alls. They are know-it-alls because there they earn money without working, without sweating. No. That’s why the people have to know how to govern. Compañeros, compañeras Zapatistas. That is what we demonstrated 30 years ago.
That’s where we realized. With the compañeros, the Committee. We are glad that you understood how young people made their play very clear. But we say that we need to do it in deeds, not in discourse.
Not only in poetry.
Not only in theater productions.
Not only in painting.
And many other things.
Documentaries, or whatever it’s called.
I’m not saying it doesn’t work. It helps communicate. It is one thing to communicate, another thing is to spend centuries and centuries communicating and nothing is done. Like someone who preaches and who preaches, dies and there’s never anything.
So compañeros, compañeras Zapatistas, to those listening to us, our relatives from other parts of the world, and also our relatives from here, the people of Mexico. Also listening are our compañeros, compañeras from the National Indigenous Congress.
However it is it that we call ourselves, and why I’m speaking to you, compañeros, compañeras Zapatistas.
So then, we have to do it in practice. You said it clearly.
We don’t have a manual. We don’t have a book. There is no book that we are going to find, where we can find this. The book is the one that you showed here of our great-grandparents and our great-great-grandparents. That’s the book: common.
What happens is that, at that time, there were no other sectors of workers like what there are today, currently there are many.
So compañeros, compañeras, as you demonstrated in your theater production, we invite even the relatives if they want to come, we will share our ideas to see which is best for life.
What we are saying here is that whoever works eats, whoever does not work, then let them eat their bill and let them eat their coin. Let’s see if that satisfies their hunger. That’s what we’re saying.
We don’t need to kill, that’s what we’re saying. But for that you need organization. Do in deeds. Youth, women, men and those from all sectors and those compañeros, compañeras, that is what we have to demonstrate.
We no longer believe those who are ruling out there, because capitalism is in the world.
Let’s get organized in each geography and each person with their own calendar, because “No one is us,” it is what we say and from what we see, this is how it is. Because no one is going to struggle where everyone lives. It is us who are there, where we live. There is no one who is going to struggle there.
Does anyone believe that capitalism can be humanized?
(No no no no no.)
The same. We say, capitalism cannot be humanized. Capitalism is not going to say, “I give up exploiting.”
No one, from the smallest of the small does it stop cheating from, stealing from, and exploiting from, not to mention the really big ones.
So it doesn’t take much study. What is needed now is to think about how to change this. And no one is going to tell us, it is us, the people, women, men.
We are going to follow that path and we are going to defend ourselves. We don’t need to kill soldiers and bad governments. But if they come, we will defend ourselves.
And that is why we have stood aside for them for 30 years, 30 years were enough for us to realize what our young compañeros and compañeras presented: the pyramid is useless. It does not work. And if someone believes so, that’s why we say, everyone in their geography, show us and we will show too.
So, compañeros, compañeras bases of support, we are committed no. Compañeros, compañeras bases of support, we are alone as we were 30 years ago.
Because until now alone we have discovered that new path that we are going to follow: common.
Here, we still need them to show us if they agree, our compañeros, compañeras from the National Indigenous Congress and the people of Mexico, as we are here and here we live. We will serve and we will get to know: who?
That is our task, compañeros, compañeras Zapatista bases of support. It is what we are going to be doing throughout these years.
The people rule and the government obeys and the means of production are common and it is the people who will see.
Thank you very much. That is all our word.
Subcomandante Insurgente Moises
January 1, 2024